Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Storm of Magic - How's That Working Out For You?

Well I said I was going to ask so here goes. Storm of Magic has been out for three months now



• Did you buy the book?

• If so, how many games have you had?

• When did you last play?

I’m going to go out on a limb here and use the word “damp squib”. I also reckon we are at best only three months from White Dwarf never mentioning it again.

Cynical? Yes. But you can only go to the fountain so many times.

13 comments:

  1. - negative
    - zerotastic
    - Saw the book, looks very nicely made, this is as close to a game as I got

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  2. I had a look through the book and my first thought was that it was one extended apology for ripping the heart out of the Wood Elf armybook/play style. Seriously...how many of the items sit nicely with treesinging, the deepwood sphere, and the Woodie speciality lore extra spells....create extra forests underneath units, turn them all into blood forests, deep wood sphere and treesing ftw. Rinse and repeat.

    This then saddened me with the realisation that this probably wont be replicated in the 8th woodie book because "we already gave it to you in Storm of Magic...which we no longer talk about/sell/support..."

    Oh well-bring on treeman ancient with forest dragon howdah crewed by way watchers and wardancers that can be a mount for another treeman ancient with loremaster with optional stone thrower upgrade + spawns D6 dryads on 2+ every magic phase.

    SO no, didnt buy it, and didnt play it.

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  3. I read the book. I thought this looks like it would be a fun afternoon. Then never thought about it again.

    But that's been the same with every supplement since time began when the Persian's came out with the supplement for Shah with added elephants it got played through one winter then forgotten ; )

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  4. Baah, it's magic, I play Dwarves.... I did some grumbling about lost opportunity, wasted effort and even more time until new army books, and then promptly forgot about it.

    So no, never got it, never will, though I do hope that those who did enjoy it.

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  5. Yup, bought it.

    Alas, my local buddies are too busy testing tourney lists for me to give it a go, but I hear from a friend the scenarios are fun.

    I plan on using the comprehensive bestiary section in campaigns, the actual Storm of Magic scenarios make up a very small part of the book.

    And it is a cool book - became clear that not a lot of the rumours I'd heard were based on anything other than the expectation of it sucking. Dwarves get their own chapter, for example, based around runes. I also like the background sections.

    Those who wanted it bought it I guess, so it doesn't seem like a waste of time. I'm amazed how much people despise releases like this, despite the fact that many will get enjoyment out of it.

    But then again, I despised the daemon releases... but there's not much fun to be had there! ;)

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  6. I was never a fan of the idea, then when pictures of the new monsters surfaced I could not believe how bad they were. So I ignored it, thinking it would be forgotten by Christmas. As GW shift into pirate mode, I guess it might become a distant memory even before the big fat red bloke comes down the chimney.

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  7. Yes, bought it and it's a cracking little additional system. As a big fan of the fantasy elements of warhammer (I've never understood people who moan about the fantasy: go play historical!) it's great to have an official excuse for adding giants and such to any army. And I think the monster models are cracking - have you see the rubbish put out by other manufacturers (and at much higher prices).

    As has been noted above, the bestiary is good and very well put together, along with the suggestion that players can include any monsters they wish to add. This is another example of an open-system approach that is all too rare with GW these days, so it should be celebrated if only for that.

    Too many people will find anything to complain about, given half a chance...

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  8. Understand what you are saying Davey however we are just going to have to disagree.

    For me the whole project was ill-conceived from the beginning.

    GW have spent 20+ years building their fluff and they compromise it to sell more kits over a 3-4 month period.

    I just don't buy the Brets fighting next to VCs, empire allied with daemons etc. So it fails the 'reasonableness' litmus test.

    It reeks of "Apocalypse for Fantasy" and lacks the work and detail they have put into previous expansions such as "Lustria" or "Storm of Chaos".

    It might fit their required model for Hobby Centre customers but it's not for me.

    As I said I'm cynical as it smells like "Battle Missions", "Planetary Strike" in 40k.....a campaign with limited longevity and support.

    You can only go to the fountain so many times before those that have stayed with you call "Shenanighans"

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  9. Yup, bought the book. Not played it yet, but I never expected to get many games out of it - I'm the type of person who will buy a book simply to read it. The bestiary section alone made it worth my while, and the amount of background is enough to keep me satisfied.

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  10. We decided the club would buy the book, because it had been months and nobody had bought it and nobody even really knew exactly what was in it. We got it and I read through and reviewed it. Not as bad as I feared it might be based on the rumour mill.

    We haven't tried playing it yet, although it's apparently how it will play from reading it. I think it's fun, and a serious departure from the "serious business" some tournament-focused players seem to think Warhammer is. It goes in the other direction, which of course means it doesn't appeal to them.

    I think we will use it occasionally, and some of the stuff will suit itself especially well to huge games or scenarios.

    From a background perspective, I agree that some of the pacts and what have you are a bit bizarre. They are presumably there to let people ally bizarre stuff and field bigger armies, very much along the lines of Apocalypse. Make it possible for the kiddies to use everything.

    Having said that, if you keep things within reason, the inclusion of a lot of the old bound monsters (ala 4th and 5th edition) and the bringing of a lot of the Forgeworld models into the "mainstream" rules (from GW as opposed to from Forgeworld) is a plus.

    I think Storm of Magic got more bad press than it deserved, and the timing is bad in terms of coming out when GW have generated a lot of ill-will recently. It may well not be supported in the long run, although apart from filling gaps in the model range, there is not a lot of support required.

    I hope they keep selling it, even if it doesn't get the hype they always associate with a new product.

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  11. I definitely value it as a book, and one I read regularly. Same with Storm of Chaos, still flick through that now and again. I don't mind that I don't get many games of it in.

    Will be getting Tamurkhan as well - very excited for that release! I hear they are utilising the scrolls of binding as well, which means use ('support') of the Storm of Magic systems in Warhammer Forge's future releases, with any luck.

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  12. Actually I have to agree with you there Pete, the VC/demonic allies part of the book is on the silly side and I don't buy that either.

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